Is it a healthy practice to advertise sufferings and seek donations?

There are few cases where disturbing images are published with news items to gain attention of the viewers. There are images of accidents or public thrashings glorified in a way which many people cannot withstand and they show certain discomforts. In television news channels we see these things too often and few international news channels display warnings in bold fonts about maintaining viewers' discretion while showing those news items. Though, many Indian news channels do not conform to this practice as I have myself witnessed in two cases.

Emotion plays a very important role on people while making decisions and in case of advertisements few images convey very wonderful emotions that compel us to make the purchase. For the last couple of days I am noticing few advertisements circulating online in different websites where a picture of a child or some aged person is shown in a pathetic condition living on life support apparatus. They are asking for some kind of help. I find the advertisement very distressing. Is it really necessary to advertise sufferings for seeking donations?

Here there are two aspects. Genuine people who are not having any monetary source and had only the last option to conduct some surgery for that they need the huge money and they would seek donation through ad. Other sect of people are thriving in as a business. When in 1980 by brother was affected by kidney failure and need to transplanted and for that huge money as per those days was required to which we advertised in the paper. We got 20,000 rupees from various companies and people. Ponds company shared 10,000 rupees which was big amount and one person from Coimbatore has sent 5 rupees. Though the of kidney transplant was 1.5 lakh , we could able to get 20,000 only and thus the operation could not be held. So what I mean to say here that there are genuine cases to which we can donate directly to the hospital account.K Mohan'Idhuvum Kadandhu Pogum "Even this challenging situation would ease

Even I see some disturbing pictures of children on social sites but there they don't want money they ask for "share" or "like" I don't know how they get money for it.Yes we are emotional and its easy for people to make us fool sometimes. Regarding donations I have not seen such ads ever and have never contributed for the sameSanjeev

" It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not" ... Andre Gide

Everyone in this world wants to make money in easy ways. These are the tricks played by people who exploit the sentiments of the public by showing emotional things and encouraging for purchase or donations.

We should never fall prey to these mean tricks.

Of course there are genuine orphanage and social help centers which require donations to continue their good work but to find out such good ones out of so many fakes is a real difficult task.

Donation is a good gesture but only when it is reaching the needy.Knowledge is power.

Umesh, I agree with the point that we must donate but when its ensured that it reaches to the needy people.

Thats the main reason I don't believe in charity through relief funds who knows if the money goes to the people who need it. In today's world when there is so much of corruption here how can we believe that our hard earned money is being utilised.Sanjeev

" It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not" ... Andre Gide

Advertising sufferings and asking for donations is, I would say, a sort of emotional blackmailing only and should not be encouraged. Putting up a requirement for some medical treatment or for some financial assistance to tide over some unexpected calamity as a news item is acceptable because we go through the contents as if it is a news item only and the effect is different from what we experience while watching it on a visual media. As the author has rightly said, watching such sufferings, especially medical related cases, in the visual media can be a harrowing experience sometimes and not all may be able to view the same with a normal frame of mind. Hence, I am of the opinion that the visual media should desist from airing such advertisements documenting the whole issue. One should be careful while sharing such ads in the social media too.

While I agree that there may be people who try to cheat or exploit by placing such advertisements, it is always open to us to check the truthfulness in the matter and take a decision. Moreover, in most of the cases today, donations are sought through bank accounts and so the possibility of a fake news is very less. Also, nobody would force us to donate, it is purely a personal decision.'Any fool can know. The point is to understand."- Albert Einstein

Earlier, I used to believe in those advertisements as genuine but never made any donations. But I have later observed that the same images are used for different ailments with completely different patient descriptions. Then I got suspicious about those advertisements. Some advertisements may be true, but because of fake advertisements, even the needy people may not get the donations.

Many people try to get benefitted by making money through false statements and advertisements regarding some or other problem. some people will get emotional and help the advertisers. This has been observed many times. Because of these deceiving advertisements if somebody is really suffering also people are not coming forward to help. I personally feel that unless otherwise, we are sure about the requirement we should not encourage those advertisements. If we know personally somebody is suffering and for his/her treatment they are not able to spend by themselves, there is nothing wrong in helping them.drrao always confident

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